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Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's Monster Culture

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Monster Culture Jeffrey Jerome Cohen is the writer of “Monster Culture: Seven Theses.” He went to the University of Rochester and acquired a PhD in English and has been teaching at George Washington University since 1994. The intended audience of this essay is anybody interested in the monster culture. This essay came from Monster Theory: Reading Culture. The essays within analyzes and studies certain aspects of culture. Cohen breaks down popular and earlier modes of cultural studies by suggesting knowledge is not local and creates seven theses to help the reader to understand the cultures the monsters have created. The monsters that are mentioned are Aliens, Werewolves, Vampires, Frankenstein, Grendel, and the Boogeyman. The theses show off unique concepts. Such as: Monsters and their significance in society beyond the literal and imaginary and the cultural use of these monsters in literature and our media. The points are valid, they indeed represent the way cultures view and treat the idea of monster. Thesis 1: The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body starts with the first sentence, before the thesis. “The Monster is born only at this metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment- of a time, a feeling, and a place. The monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy (ataractic or incendiary), given them life and an uncanny independence.” (Picart and Browning 15) The body of the culture is dominance, tightly

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